Into Dust
by aintwealljustrunaways
Summary: [ Human!AU RusCan, fail summary, but give it a chance ] It was just a regular summer when Ivan became a neighbor to Matthew. Everything began as just a simple friendship between kids, but later on, there would be feelings that neither of them could understand.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N:** My first fanfic! I hope you like it ;w; Anyway, this story is written from Matthew's POV, and I know my writing skills are horrible, but enjoy~!

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I remember I met him the summer before I started junior high school. He was strange- Most people, specially my brother Alfred, considered him creepy. But I didn't. His name was Ivan, Ivan Braginski. In my eyes he was the best friend one could ever wish for. Until there was a twist in our friendship that neither of us could handle.

It was a sunny day in August, tough it was windy. I remember I was sitting on a swing in my yard, reading The Drawer Boy by Michael Healy. Some voices -with heavy accents- made me look up from my book, and that's when I met the Braginski family. The voices came from the house next door; it had been for sale for a long time now, and apparently it had found new owners. The younger girl, a pretty blonde who wore an oversized white bow on top of her head, walked over to me and smiled. "Hello, my name is Natalia Arlovskaya."

"I'm Matthew Williams." I replied with a nod and a polite smile. Just then, a boy who looked older than her, maybe about my age, walked up to us. His hair was sandy blonde, and his eyes violet. Also he was tall, and wore a light pink scarf even tough it was the middle of summer.

"Natalia, I've told you many times that you shouldn't talk to strangers." He told her, his voice with a heavier accent than the girl's. It was unpolite how he completely ignored my presence, but I decided not to say anything.

"Brother, this is Matthew. You are our new neighbor, aren't you?" Natalia asked me, to which I nodded again. The corner's of Ivan's lips twitched in what I thought was a small smile, and he held out his hand for me to shake. "Ivan Braginski. Nice to meet you.."

I shook his hand- He had a pretty strong handshake, if I must say. "Nice to meet you too, Ivan."

That was one of the most awkward moments in my whole, twelve-year-long life. I still didn't understand why they had different surnames if they were siblings- or maybe, they were like Alfred and me. My surname was Williams and his was Jones. You must be wondering why, but that is indeed a long story. "Uhm... so, where are you from?" I asked to break the awkward silence, as I saw who seemed to be their parents entering the house, each of them carrying cardboard boxes, on which sides there were scrawled things in a language I thought was Russian.

"Russia. But Natalia is Belarussian." Answered Ivan, a somewhat smug smile on his face. Natalia nodded, smiling at her brother. "So, you're from here, da?" He asked me, his expression now politely interested.

I nodded at that, and started talking to them about what life in Canada was like. In exchange, they told me about Russia, and ocassionally about Belarus. Sometimes, a word in Russian would escape Ivan's lips, but most of the time I could understand them, because the last year in school everyone had to take a language class, and as you can guess, I chose Russian.

We kept talking for a good five hours more, which I realized when I looked up at the setting sun from my spot on the grass, having offered Natalia the swing a few hours back. I sat with my knees pulled against my chest, my chin resting on them. I guessed it had to be around seven in the evening. Natalia and I quickly became friends, tough Ivan was a little more difficult to understand. We got along pretty well, of course, but due to the childish smile that almost always rested on his lips, it was hard to tell what he was thinking.

They were both interesting, and I learned that they had an older sister named Yekaterina, who lived in Ukraine. Tough, they were also different from each other. Ivan would talk about sunflowers and snow, but Natalia would suggest rather incestuous things to him. I kept quiet most of the conversation, just speaking when I was asked something.

Eventually, around half an hour later, Natalia went into her house to help her mother with the food, leaving Ivan and me alone. I sat on the swing again, and he handed me my book, which I'd left on the grass. "Thanks." I said with a smile, and he smiled back at me. This smile, however, was different than his usual child-like smile. It was softer, and somehow, seemed more genuine.

"We are friends, da?"

"Yes, Ivan. We are friends."

At the moment, I didn't know how much those simple words would have an impact on my life. After all, I was just a silly, twelve-year-old, who had found a new friend.

A new friend who would change my life in many ways.

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**A/N:** Did you like it? I know Natalia was kinda ooc-ish, but I will fix that in future chapters. I worked pretty hard on this, so it would make me really, really happy to know what you think~!


	2. Chapter 2

"Some people see the glass half full. Others see it half empty. I see a glass that's twice as big as it needs to be."

That is a nice quote from a wise man, George Carlin. And in truth, I agree with his philosophy. To me, that quote means that sometimes, you are the water in the glass, the big glass. The one that you can't fulfill. In simpler words, to me it means that no matter how hard you try, you'll never be able to fill the glass.

I was the water, and Ivan was the glass.

The sunny days of August went by quickly, and with them, our friendship also became stronger. Soon enough, it was the last day of summer before school. And I wasn't exactly looking forward to it. I had never been popular, and I could be certain that this year things wouldn't be different.

The first true friend I ever had was Ivan, and I knew that as soon as he set foot in school, he would forget about me, just like everyone else had. Meaning that poor, old Matthew would be alone as always. I was used to being alone, of course, but after feeling what having a friend felt like, I didn't want to let him go.

Remember what I said about being unable to fill the glass? Well, I wasn't enough for Ivan, and I knew it.

I could see that for myself when he met Alfred, that last day of school. I was certain he had much more fun with my brother than he ever had with me and, it hurt. Honestly, it did. I was aware of the fact that it would be completely selfish to keep the Russian to myself, God, of course I knew it.

When I flicked the calendar from August to September the morning of my first day of school, I knew what was coming. Breakfast went by quickly, and Alfred didn't seem at all worried about school. After all, he was a year older than me, meaning he didn't find junior high school frightening at all. He said that my worries were 'pointless and stupid because junior high rocks, dude!'

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I swallowed before knocking on the door of class 1-B. I had heard that Ivan's parents had signed him up to the same school as me, but I still didn't know if he was in my class. Honestly, I was hopeless.

But as the door opened revealing my Russian friend's sandy blonde hair and light pink scarf in the background, a grin made its way upon my face. A boy with dark brown hair opened the door, his hazel eyes scanning my face, as if I was some kind of robot. "What the hell do you want? The teacher's not here." He spat, his voice with a heavy Italian accent.

I could feel my grin fall at his utterance. "I'm.. uh, I'm in this class." With that, the boy turned around and walked away leaving the door open, so I took a step inside, closing the door after myself. I took the seat next to Ivan's, whose face was slammed against his desk. "Braginski." I said, trying to make my voice sound as different as possible.

"Huh?" He didn't even bother to look at me. I fought back a chuckle before answering. "It's me." I said, now in my normal voice. Ivan turned his head to look at me, that childish smile I longed to see appearing. I still didn't know why I had missed him so much, if I had seen him yesterday. Maybe it was because I thought he would immediately forget about me. It made me feel happy how he exclaimed my name, "Matvey!" For some reason, he liked to call me the Russian form of Matthew.

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I have to say, having Ivan in my class was the only highlight in my day. Everyone else acted as if I were invisible- literally. People would go and chat with Ivan while we were hanging out, and they would completely ignore me. They thought that a Russian was 'oh so interesting' and that they could be 'best friends forever'. It irritated me. To the point that I had to stand up and leave.

I did think that Ivan was interesting, and that we could be best friends. But it annoyed me how everyone wanted to be with him just because it was Russian. It even hurt.

"Society is screwed." I mumbled as I walked away from them, swallowing when I looked back. A few minutes later, I heard footsteps following me. "Matvey, tell me what's wrong, da?" There was no way I wouldn't be able to recognize that voice. I stopped frozen in my tracks, turning to look up at him.

"Everything is wrong, Ivan." I answered, now dropping my gaze. I knew he wouldn't understand it- after all, he'd been the center of attention the whole day. I didn't want nor need attemtion, but it still hurt to be completely invisible to everyone else. "Why, Matvey? The day hasn't been that bad."

"You say so because you haven't been invisible your whole life." And that was true. At school, I was just some geeky child who had good grades but didn't have friends. And at home, I was always overlooked by Alfred- the perfect boy. It was horrible to see how I was always the second choice, even to my own mother.


End file.
